Okiya Omtatah: How a man with no law degree became Kenya's courtroom warrior

From chaining himself at Vigilance House to blocking MPs from awarding themselves hefty perks, and now suing both President Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto’s governments for plunging the country into a Sh4.6 trillion debt, Robert Wanjala tells the story of how a man with no law degree became Kenya’s courtroom warrior and now he wants to be the country’s next president.

The story of this playwright begins in a little-known small village of Kwang’amor in Busia County, at 9pm on November 30, 1961. Inside a thatched-roof mud house dimly lit by a kerosene lamp, his grandmother helped deliver a baby boy, who arrived earlier than expected. In the next room, his father was glued to the BBC radio, listening to Winston Churchill celebrate his 87th birthday. The boy shares a birthday with Britain’s wartime bulldog, his father chuckled.

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From chaining himself at Vigilance House to blocking MPs from awarding themselves hefty perks, and now suing both President Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto’s governments for plunging the country into a Sh4.6 trillion debt, Robert Wanjala tells the story of how a man with no law degree became Kenya’s courtroom warrior and now he wants to be the country’s next president.